Tag Archives: Employees

This is a follow-up to my previous post, Health Care Costs Rising for Workers. My post then cited a Kaiser study; this article references the University of Minnesota’s State Health Access Data Assistance Center.

On Monday, I reported that there is an effort underway to discredit the move towards single payer by various groups, and even Howard Schultz, the outgoing Chairman of Starbucks said the following back in June:

“It concerns me that so many voices within the Democratic Party are going so far to the left. I say to myself, ‘How are we going to pay for these things,’ in terms of things like single payer [and] people espousing the fact that the government is going to give everyone a job. I don’t think that’s something realistic. I think we got to get away from these falsehoods and start talking about the truth and not false promises.”

So, if these two studies are accurate, and there is no way to prove they aren’t, then both Mr. Schultz and the various groups attempting to derail single payer, are only going to make things worse for workers, and for everyone else.

The Commonwealth Fund today released a report that stated that the cost of employer-based insurance is a growing burden on middle-class families.

In 2017, more than half (56%) of people under age 65, about 152 million people, had insurance through an employer, either their own or a family member’s. In contrast, only 9 percent had a plan purchased on the individual market, including the marketplaces.

Here are the highlights from that brief:

Highlights

* After climbing modestly between 2011 and 2016, average premiums for employer health plans rose sharply in 2017. Annual single-person premiums climbed above $7,000 in eight states; family premiums were $20,000 or higher in seven states and D.C.

* Rising overall employer premiums increased the amount that workers and their families contribute. Average annual premium contributions for single-person plans ranged from $675 in Hawaii to $1,747 in Massachusetts; family plans ranged from $3,646 in Michigan to $6,533 in Delaware.

* Average employee premium contributions across single and family plans amounted to 6.9 percent of U.S. median income in 2017, up from 5.1 percent in 2008. In 11 states, premium contributions were 8 percent of median income or more, with a high of 10.2 percent in Louisiana.

* The average annual deductible for single-person policies rose to $1,808 in 2017, ranging from a low of $863 in Hawaii to a high of about $2,300 in Maine and New Hampshire. Average deductibles across single and family plans amounted to 4.8 percent of median income in 2017, up from 2.7 percent in 2008. In three states (Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee), average deductibles comprised more than 6 percent of median income.

* Combined, average employee premium contributions and potential out-of-pocket spending to meet deductibles across single and family policies rose to $7,240 in 2017 and was $8,000 or more in eight states. Nationally, this potential spending amounted to 11.7 percent of median income in 2017, up from 7.8 percent a decade earlier. In Louisiana and Mississippi, these combined costs rose to 15 percent or more of median income.

The survey covers the last ten years, from 2008 to 2018. Most of where the employees are paying for health care comes from deductibles, which has seen a +212% increase over that period, and is out of pocket. These costs, the survey said, is rising faster than inflation and wages.

Premiums for families have risen over this period +55%, while workers’ earnings have risen +26%, and inflation has risen +17%.

According to Kaiser, employees are paying an average of about $1,200 per year in premiums. That’s 65% more than what they paid in 2008, for single coverage plans that cover only the worker, no family members.

Besides the increase in deductibles, the number of employees who have a deductible has gone up, and the number of employees with above-average deductibles is up as well.

But there’s a sense, at least among some liberal-leaning health care experts, that employers have just about maxed out their ability to shift more costs onto employees — meaning that once price increases start to pick up steam again, businesses and workers will both feel the pain quickly.

What does this mean?

As workers’ wages are stagnant, and health care costs are rising, shifting the cost of health care onto the backs of workers is not only counterproductive to lowering the cost of health care, it puts an undue burden on those who can least afford to shell out more of their hard earned income on health care, especially when they have a serious medical issue to deal with.

Single payer will relieve the worker from having to pay out of pocket when wages are stagnant, and when wages rise again. This will enable them to have more money to spend on things that otherwise would have been prohibitive before.

To do no less is to saddle the working class with perpetual debt and decreased economic power. Not a good way to run an economy.

Back in March of 2015, I wrote about the top 10 causes of workplace injuries. I posited the idea that medical tourism (medical travel) could save employers money so that the workers’ comp industry would take medical travel seriously as an option for injured workers. The same holds true for the medical travel industry, as they seem to be AWOL when it comes to workers’ health.

Here is an updated report on the Machine Safety Blog from Rockford Systems, LLC:

Last year in America 2.9 million employees (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics) suffered a workplace injury from which they never recover, at a cost to business of nearly $60 billion (Liberty Mutual Insurance). These statistics are staggering. To help gain a better perspective on the realities of workplace danger, we have compiled a list of […]

The proletarianization of physicians marches on. As you recall from my reviews of “Health Care under the Knife”, there has been a steady movement towards making physicians into employees of hospitals, or rather their proletarianization. Now it seems they are up against noncompetes, as the article below reports.

Here is the link to the article:

Legal experts say noncompete agreements are common practice for hospitals, and are usually enforceable. But physicians, and in some cases the courts, are pushing back.

Turning back to the original subject of this blog, workers’ comp issues, two articles this week discusses two recent reports that examine the issue of workplace safety.

The first article highlights the fact that despite a drop in the number of workplace injuries, the cost of those injuries and illnesses continues to rise, according to the 2018 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index.

According to the Safety Index, the number of most serious injuries and illnesses fell by 1.5%, yet their cost, including medical and lost-wage payments, rose by 2.9% between the 2017 and 2018 reports.

Total cost of the most disabling work-related injuries was $58.5 billion, with the 10 leading causes accounting for $51.4 billion of the total, the Index reported.

The top cause of workplace injuries, according to the Index, was overexertion, costing employers $13.7 billion in 2015. Falls on the same level came after that at a cost of $11.2 billion, while falls at a lower level cost another $5.9 billion.

Finally, rounding out the top five causes, were struck by object or equipment at $5.3 billion, and other exertions or bodily reactions at nearly $4.2 billon, the Index reported.

The second article discusses a report issued by the AFL-CIO on making workplaces safer. The report outlines the state of safety and health protections for American workers, and includes state and national information on workplace fatalities, injuries, illnesses, the number and frequency of workplace inspections, penalties, funding, staffing and public employee coverage under OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act). It also has information on mine safety and health.

A side note here: On Tuesday, the voters in West Virginia defeated Don Blankenship, the former Chairman and CEO of Massey Energy Company, who was convicted and spent a year in prison for his role in a mine safety disaster, who ran for the Republican nomination for US Senator. Blankenship not only ran a lackluster campaign, but engaged in calling Senate Majority Leader McConnell a few choice names, and attacked his wife and father-in-law because they are Chinese. He chose to use racist language to attack McConnell’s family,

But back to the issue at hand.

In 2016, there were 5,190 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries, which was an increase over the 4,836 deaths reported in 2015. The rate of fatalities in 2016 also increased from 3.4 per 100,000 in 2015 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2016.

Since Congress enacted the OSH Act, more than 579,000 workers can claim that their lives have been saved. But the article states that too many workers remain at serious risk of injury, illness or death as a result of chemical plant explosions, major fires, construction collapses, and other preventable tragedies. Add to that, workplace violence is increasing.

Key points to consider:

An average of 14 workers die because of job injuries; does not include death from occupational diseases, estimated to be 50,000 – 60,000 each year

In 2016, nearly 3.7 million workers across all industries, plus state and local governments, had work-related injuries and illnesses; 2.9 million reported by employers in private industry

Due to limitations on current reporting system, true toll is estimated to be two or three times greater, or 7.4 – 11.1 million injuries and illnesses a year

Cost of these injuries and illnesses estimated at $250 billion to $360 billion

Key takeaways:

During eight years of Obama administration, a strong track record on worker safety and health was achieved. Dedicated pro-worker advocates appointed to lead job safety agencies, increase budget for job safety, stepped up enforcement and strengthened workers’ rights, landmark legislation protecting workers from silica and coal dust issued, long-overdue rules on other serious safety and health hazards, including beryllium and confined space entry in construction industry introduced

Opposition by business groups and Republican-led Congress thwarted action on a number of initiatives, but at end of eight years, Obama administration put in place protections, policies, and programs that made jobs safer, reduced injuries and illnesses, and saved workers’ lives

Compare that to what the current anti-worker, pro-business fascist regime in Washington is doing to not only roll back the work of the Obama administration, but to undo all the safeguards and protections workers had fought and died for over the past century.

There is even consideration of looking at the child labor laws. Instead of draining the swamp, the head of this regime has nominated a coal industry executive to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Folks, this gang of corporate criminals wants to make America great again by not moving forward, but by moving backward. They want to take the country back, alright — right back to the 19th century when businesses did whatever they wanted, workers had no rights, and if you got injured or ill on the job, it was too bad. Or maybe it was your fault. That was the verdict in the civil case against the two owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, whose factory went up in flames in March 1911, and led to enactment of workers’ compensation laws and fire codes.

And the sad thing is, there are many business professionals who support and defend this regime and its leader, especially on social media sites like LinkedIn. They are not CEOs or Presidents of companies, although some maybe, albeit small ones. They do have executive titles at the managerial, supervisory or vice presidential levels. They are not informed about the struggles workers endured during the last century to gain those rights and protections. And until the labor movement, and the union leadership regains their rightful place as defenders of those rights, these actions will continue until they are gone forever.

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Quotes

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

– Muhammad Ali

“If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small..”

– Azim Premji

“Those who say your dreams are ridiculous have given up on theirs.”

– Unknown

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

– Thomas Carlyle

“As the work is done for the employer, and therefore ultimately for the public, it is a bitter injustice that it should be the wage-worker himself and his wife and children who bear the whole penalty.”

– President Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

To permit every lawless capitalist, every law-defying corporation, to take any action, no matter how iniquitous, in the effort to secure an improper profit and to build up privilege, would be ruinous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to secure in the industrial world the spirit of democratic fair dealing.

– Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

– John Kenneth Galbraith

“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

– Thomas Jefferson

“Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges… which are employed altogether for their benefit.”

– Andrew Jackson

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it’s reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

– Abraham Lincoln

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

“Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.”

– Karl Marx

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, NOT on fighting the old, but on BUILDING the NEW.”

– Socrates

“Every man takes the limits of his field of vision for the limits of the world”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”

– Robin Williams

“There can be no equality or opportunity if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with.”

– Woodrow Wilson

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”

– John Stuart Mill

“The masters of the government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States.”

– Woodrow Wilson

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health [care] is the most shocking and inhuman[e]…”